


Just a Hobby

by kaistrex (weishen)



Series: Prompts [11]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alive Hale Family, Alpha Laura Hale, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Law Enforcement, Attempt at Humor, Beta Derek, Deputy Derek, Deputy Stiles Stilinski, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Humor, M/M, POV Derek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 07:13:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11823765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weishen/pseuds/kaistrex
Summary: Five times Deputy Derek shelters his partner from the world of the supernatural and the one time he discovers he’s just been making a fool of himself.





	Just a Hobby

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Всего лишь хобби](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13504737) by [Katrinos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katrinos/pseuds/Katrinos), [WTF_Tyler_Hoechlin_2018](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WTF_Tyler_Hoechlin_2018/pseuds/WTF_Tyler_Hoechlin_2018)
  * Translation into Español available: [Just a Hobby (Traduccion)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15575691) by [yuki_yuki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuki_yuki/pseuds/yuki_yuki)



> The fourth part doesn't really fit in with the 'Five times...' in the summary, but I didn't know how else to word it!  
> This is inspired by all the prompts we were throwing at each other in my writing group.

With news of a Nemeton waking in the town of Beacon Hills, Derek immediately requests a transfer to the town’s Sheriff department. The area has no protectors, no werewolf pack that calls it home, and he's had enough experience to know the current deputies have no idea what they're dealing with.

The new magical activity given off by the Nemeton is responsible for the spike in supernatural attention, though he can’t help wondering if the pull drawing him to the town makes him any different from the rest of them. One thing’s for sure though: he had no idea how difficult it would be to cover up the true natures of the criminals when he’s been landed with a partner this distracting.

Stiles Stilinski is the son of the celebrated Sheriff, sharp-minded and quick-witted and sarcastic, with bright eyes, a smart mouth and long fingers. From day one, Derek was a goner but, beside the fact that trying to date his partner would be frowned upon on a whole number of levels, the sorts of secrets Derek is keeping from him does not a lasting relationship make. It didn’t help grow a working partnership either, especially after only one hour on the job and Stiles already caught him logging into his family’s bestiary.

“‘Myth versus reality’,” Stiles had read aloud slowly from over his shoulder. Derek had leapt nearly a foot in the air and cracked his computer mouse with how hard he clicked the minimise button.

“It’s just a hobby!” he’d blurted out, sure he must have been sweating bullets as Stiles’ eyes narrowed.

His new partner’s frown smoothed out a second later to an expression strangely blank. “A hobby?” he’d asked with a knowing nod. “Cool.”

Despite the close call, the bestiary comes in handy when his first major case happens to be a wendigo discovered after a prolonged power outage to the street it lived on raised complaints of a foul odour coming from the thing’s basement. It’s since been dubbed a cannibal and Derek is the only one who knows the truth.

Under the guise of following a lead (a.k.a. Derek’s nose), he and Stiles venture out to an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town, and while scouting the building, Derek is the one who happens upon the creature first.

With a wendigo leaping, ring of teeth aimed at his throat, he manages to resist the instinct to extend his claws and raises his gun instead, pulling the trigger twice in quick succession. Stiles tears around the corner, skidding to a halt when he spots the victim on the floor just after its second set of teeth retreat back into its gums and its white glowing eyes fade upon death. He places his hands on his knees, panting, and Derek really shouldn’t be staring at the veins in his forearms.

“You okay?” Stiles asks.

“I’m fine.”

Stiles steps forward and crouches down beside the wendigo, reaching out a finger towards the thing’s mouth.

“You shouldn’t touch it,” Derek blurts out, heart pounding at the prospect of Stiles poking a gum with his nail and extending the wendigo’s teeth.

Stiles drops his hand to his knee and looks up at Derek with a lopsided grin.

“I bet you feel like you’ve moved to Crazy Town, huh?”

Derek can barely manage a smile in return, too tense after that close call. He just hopes the wendigo’s gums are given a wide berth when the body is officially inspected.

 

*

 

After suffering a mandatory psych eval in the wake of the shooting and refusing the offer of administrative leave, his case immediately upon his return is just a simple arrest. On the surface at least, but Derek knows the woman’s crime of murdering her next-door neighbour has a more sinister implication, one that reeks of witchcraft. It’s especially foreboding when she’s dragged out of her house screeching, “You’re too late! _You’re too late!”_

But too late for what? The other deputies on the scene chalk it up to being too late to save the neighbour, and though Derek is quick to agree and hammer the thought into Stiles’ head, he’s not so sure.

He stands studying her kitchen table, covered in herbs, tiny bones and a vial of blood that to an outsider would just look like the collection of a madwoman but that Derek knows are actually ingredients. It’s a combination he’s sure he’s heard of before, but where, he can’t quite remember. Probably in the bestiary. Whatever it is, it looks like the spell is complete and the neighbour’s blood was a key ingredient.

Stiles approaches to stand at his elbow, and Derek appreciates the tang of citrus he brings which, though hell on a stakeout in an enclosed space when he’s expected to remain vigilant, helps clear his head of the pungent stench surrounding them.

“She lost her husband two weeks ago,” Stiles informs him, sombrely.

Ah. That explains it. Derek knows now how his night is going to be spent.

 

*

 

After leaving the scene of the witch’s altar, Stiles invites him out for drinks after work with some of the other deputies but Derek declines with the excuse of existing plans. It’s not exactly a lie. Standing in the middle of the quiet graveyard waiting for the zombie to surface, he imagines trying to explain his real prior engagement to his colleagues, and shakes his head.

He hears movement below the ground and picks his way between the gravestones to what must be the witch’s husband’s final resting place beside the statue of a solemn angel. Her resurrection spell takes a few minutes to reach its full effect but when a head breaks through the soil, he lifts the shovel he found leant up against the mausoleum at the cemetery entrance and brings the flat of the blade down with a sickening crack. The reanimated corpse goes limp, dead once more. Derek reaches down to use his strength and push it back under the soil, sweeping loose dirt back over. He straightens up and dusts off his hands, torn between feeling accomplished for managing to clear a case before it had the chance to even become one and lamenting the neighbour’s life wasted.

After replacing the shovel, he steals back to his car and it’s only then that he encounters any other presence: a pair of taillights retreating round a bend down the road back to town.

 

*

 

Derek doesn’t have an excuse to skip drinks the next week, but when a woman approaches Stiles at the bar where he’s buying another round, his mouth goes dry and he wishes that he had.

His nose reveals to him instantly what she is, the cloud of lust oozing around her almost like a miasma, and he can do nothing but watch as she slips onto the barstool next to where Stiles is standing with a contented - borderline erotic - sigh.

Stiles turns his bright eyes on her, mouth quirking into a lopsided grin. “Long day?”

“Buy me a drink and I’ll tell you all about it,” she purrs, shrugging out of a cropped leather jacket to reveal her dangerously low-cut dress.

Most of the patrons in the bar are staring at her now, drawn in by the overflow from the enchantment she’s weaving on Stiles. Derek’s grip tightens on his glass and he’s already rising to his feet to— to do what, he’s not quite sure. But—

“Sorry, I’m here with some friends tonight,” Stiles begins to explain, gesturing to the corner where Derek is sitting with the other deputies. He knows he’s staring but his mind is stuck on the discovery that if Stiles can resist the wiles of a succubus it can only mean one thing for his sexuality.

The succubus’ eyes flit over, meeting Derek’s. She looks back at Stiles, then to Derek again, and her smile takes on a devilish curve. He doesn’t want to know what sort of emotions she’s reading on him right now.

She tips her head back and laughs, a move that has the bartender’s mouth dropping open, oblivious as the glass he’s filling overflows.

“No apology needed.”

She hooks a hand around Stiles’ elbow as he turns to leave with his drink and puts her mouth to his ear to murmur. Derek catches it nonetheless.

“Don’t keep him waiting.”

Stiles’ eyes find Derek’s and he can feel a burning flush spreading high in his cheeks and to the tips of his ears. He busies himself with the position of his drink on the table in front of him as Stiles bids the succubus a good night and makes his way back over.

Derek keeps his gaze averted, wanting to believe it all means what he thinks it means, but too afraid to get his hopes up.

 

*

 

On a rare quiet night in Beacon Hills, he and Stiles have just finished up responding to complaints of a disturbance just a few blocks away from the station. They’re heading back to their cruiser parked across the street when—

“Get down!”

Derek drops to the ground as a crossbow bolt embeds itself in the fence where his head had been a second before.

Stiles is already yelling, “Drop your weapon!” as Derek scrambles behind the tyre of the nearest car, but a second bolt pierces through the palm of Derek’s left hand before he can take cover. He hisses in pain, fangs shredding at his lip in his effort to keep quiet; there’s _no way_ he can let Stiles see this. How the hell will he explain it when a hole through the middle of his hand disappears by morning?

A gunshot rings out as Derek snaps the bolt in two - Stiles’ gun - and a shout of pain and a thud tells him their assailant has been incapacitated. He licks away the blood trickling down his palm as he disposes of the bolt down a nearby drain; his accelerated healing means it’s already stopped bleeding, though he still has a peephole.

He climbs to his feet and approaches Stiles standing over the man who had attacked.

“Son of a _bitch_ ,” Stiles pants, looking at the man - the hunter - groaning on the ground in front of them with a bullet in his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I—”

“Are you sure? I thought—”

“I’m fine,” Derek assures him. He makes sure to keep his left hand in shadow as he reaches up to his shoulder mic with his right to phone in the attack.

 

*

 

A week after the hunter incident, Derek has just returned from a solitary lunch at the sandwich shop just up the street from the station when Tara informs him the Sheriff has requested to speak to him in his office.

“Come in,” the Sheriff answers at Derek’s knock.

He opens the door to see the Sheriff sat at his desk, Stiles in a seat beside him and there, perched on a chair behind the door, is his sister and Alpha, Laura Hale.

“What are you doing here?” Derek hisses.

She raises an imperious eyebrow. “You were attacked by a _hunter_ , Derek. That would have been nice to have been told about in our weekly phone calls! It’s a good job Stiles had enough common sense to keep your Alpha informed!”

Derek is spluttering about so many of the things coming out of Laura’s mouth that he almost misses the most important point.

“Laur— Wha— _Stiles?_ ”

Stiles leans forward in his chair, smirking. “I told you it was a cool hobby.”

Derek gapes. “ _You knew all this time?_ But— But you’re _human!_ ” Somewhere amongst the confusion he manages to sit heavily in the last empty chair.

Stiles scoffs. “Not all us humans walk around with our eyes shut. Good job with the zombie, by the way. No body, no paperwork. Always a plus in my book.”

“So, the other night with the succubus? You knew? You were warded or something?”

“Hmm, no.” Stiles grins and it’s startlingly reminiscent of the succubus’ smile at the bar. “But it’s very interesting that with the wendigo or the witch or even the hunter, the succubus is the first thing you think of.”

Derek knows he’s gaping like a fish, but even with his sister’s poorly-contained snorts, he still can’t wipe the expression from his face.

“Sorry, son,” the Sheriff chimes in. “I had planned on informing you as soon as you started, but this one got to you first,” he explains, hooking a thumb at Stiles beside him. “And he was right when he said it was funny watching you attempt cover-ups.”

Laura’s snorts have turned into outright giggles and Derek shoots her a dirty glare. She’s his Alpha. Isn’t she supposed to be on his side?

“What are you even doing here?” he asks again.

“You’re lucky it’s me and not mom.”

Derek pales. “She knows?”

“Of course she does,” Laura sighs. “I thought she was going to shake the Alpha out of me back into her and come tearing over here herself.”

Derek and Laura both shudder.

“Anyway, the real reason I’m here is to scope the place out—”

“I don’t need your help. The hunter is already taken care of and it was just one fanatic,” Derek argues.

“Oh, I’m not here about the hunter. Not really,” Laura says, waving her hand. “I’m scoping the place out because we’re thinking of moving.”

If Derek had a drink, this would be the moment he spits it all over the table. “The _whole pack?_ ”

“Yeah.” Laura shrugs. “You know mom’s been sick of the city for a long time, and hearing about all the dangers this Nemeton is drawing, it sounds like someone needs to take a proper stance. Not that the Sheriff here hasn’t been doing a stellar job,” Laura adds, respectfully tilting her head to the Stilinskis on the other side of the desk, a gesture they both return. “But you can never have too many allies.”

“And we would welcome all the help we can get,” the Sheriff adds. “Derek here has been a great asset.”

Laura beams at Derek and he’s too slow to dodge her clutching hands that come up to pinch at his cheeks.

“We’ve missed our little Der Bear, out here all alone,” she coos, like she’s talking to a dog.

Derek shakes her off. “ _Laura!_ ” He means it to come out like a snarl but instead he just feels all of nine years old again, bristling at his big sister’s teasing.

“Der Bear?” Stiles echoes, and Derek doesn’t need to look at him to picture the width of the grin he has on his face. He raises his eyes to the ceiling and sighs; that nickname is never going away.

“Looks like my work here is done!” Laura says, clapping her hands together. She climbs to her feet and they all follow suit as she lifts her bag onto her shoulder. “Thank you for meeting with me, Sheriff.”

“The pleasure was all mine,” the Sheriff assures her, reaching across the desk to accept her handshake.

Laura turns to Derek and draws him into a hug, rubbing both her cheeks against his. “Key!” she demands once she’s pulled back, holding out her hand.

Derek rolls his eyes but pulls out his keys, twists his house key off the ring and hands it over. He’ll never admit it but he’s looking forward to finally having the scent of his Alpha in his space. Laura pockets it and then holds up her hand as they all try to follow her to the door.

“Why don’t you two stay here?” she says to Derek and Stiles, winking. “It sounds like you need to have a very important conversation about a succubus.”

And with that she’s gone, the Sheriff slipping out behind her and clicking the door shut.

Derek stands dazed while Stiles drops back into his chair with a heavy sigh. “She’s incredible.”

“She’s something.” Derek lowers himself into his own chair and his gaze turns accusing as he takes in Stiles before him. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”

Stiles starts to giggle. “You panicked so hard when I tried to get a look at that wendigo’s teeth! And the witch! You were so earnest trying to get me to believe she was just a madwoman!”

Derek winces and Stiles sobers.

“Are you sure the hunter didn’t hurt you?”

Derek looks down at his hand and flexes his fingers. “Nothing permanent.”

Stiles purses his lips. “From now on, you tell me if anything like that happens. I don’t care if it’s just a parking ticket giving you a papercut.”

Derek looks into Stiles eyes. “No more secrets,” he promises, gratified when Stiles gives a wince of his own.

“No more secrets,” Stiles repeats, and between one breath and the next he manages to turn the entire tone of the conversation around, as he’s always so good at doing. “And on that fresh note of honesty, did you hear what the succubus said to me at the bar?”

Derek doesn’t need to pick through the conversation to know which part he means. _Don’t keep him waiting._ His mouth is dry as he nods.

“And would you call it sage advice?”

He nods again.

The next moment, he has a lapful of Stiles and a moment after that they’re kissing. Stiles’ fingers are tangled in his hair while Derek’s roam his back, and there’s something desperate in the way they cling to each other, the way they’re both panting like they’ve run a hundred-metre sprint. Derek has just had the passing thought that he never wants it to end, when they’re broken apart by a loud rap on the door.

“I hope you’re decent in there,” comes the Sheriff’s muffled voice, and Stiles smirks.

“Don’t even think about it,” Derek whispers, swatting away Stiles’ wandering hands.

“Oh, I’m thinking about it,” Stiles whispers back.

Derek buries his face in Stiles’ shoulder. He’s surrounded by menaces and his mother hasn’t even arrived yet. God help him.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr [here](http://kaistrex.tumblr.com) or at my fic rec blog [UnderappreciatedSterek](http://underappreciatedsterek.tumblr.com)!


End file.
